EV50 double for Irish and Danes

U2 singer Bono was applauded for his efforts to persuade EU leaders to drop the debts crippling the world’s poorest economies, when he was named European of the Year at a prestigious Brussels ceremony this week.

In a message to the inaugural EV50 awards ceremony at the Palais d’Egmont, the Irish rock star said the “only really fitting memorial to the lives” lost in the

11 September atrocities “would be not just a safer, less dangerous world but a fairer, more inclusive one”.

His compatriot Pat Cox was named MEP of the

Year to make it a double night of celebration for

Ireland. Bono’s award was collected by the country’s Ambassador to the EU, Anne Anderson.

Denmark also scooped two major awards, with MEP Jens-Peter Bonde named Politician of the Year and film director Lars Von Trier Visionary of the Year.

Organised by European Voice, the awards are designed to honour the men and women who made their mark on the EU’s political agenda in 2001.

Several winners used the occasion to deliver a stinging critique of the EU institutions. Eurosceptic Bonde attacked a lack of transparency in Romano Prodi’s Commission, while English grocers Steve Thoburn and Neil Herron (Campaigners of the Year) accused the EU’s policy-makers of being aloof from ordinary people. The two ‘metric martyrs’ are contesting their conviction for refusing to comply with EU rules on phasing out imperial measures.

All 10 award winners were chosen through a ballot, involving more than 4,000 of this newspaper’s readers.